Open to change
by Luna Lumen
Summary: Jeannie doesn't get married. Rodney was right after all and he would be insufferably smug if only Jeannie weren't so heartbroken. Hopefully things will get better when they get to Atlantis and Rodney can start acting like himself again. The rating's probably gonna rise.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So I had this idea about if Jeannie didn't get married then she would probably get into the Stargate program because she's obviously smart enough. I don't know if anyones done this before? But I'm gonna give it a try to see where it goes. I didn't want to make it too long, but I think it turned out too short instead, sorry. This is just the introduction anyway. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Jeannie

Rodney could see the differences as though they were big red blinking lights, never out of his sight. Like the mistakes Kavanagh (or somebody else as stupid, though Rodney doubted such a person could exist) made, they were something he couldn't ignore no matter how much he may have wanted to. And oh how he wanted to ignore this. Couldn't this have be one of those things he was so ignorant about?

Couldn't this be one of those things other people thought was obvious and he didn't get because he just wasn't made to be sensitive to other people's emotions?

He would have thought Jeannie was trying to punish him for something, maybe the way they had parted the last time they met or something he had said that had hit a particular nerve, but that theory went out the metaphorical window the second he saw her eyes. Oh, he knew he was mostly oblivious to everything around him besides his precious physics and maths, but he just knew something was wrong the second he saw the fear in her eyes. It was the fear of rejection, of abandonment.

They were never really close when they were young, only sticking together to fight against a common enemy. They were even less close after _the incidents,_ during which they had silent, cold stare offs that were so unlike the loud, break-anything-within-reach arguments their parents used to have. They'd agreed a long time ago that they would never be anything like their parents in if possible.

Despite that, Rodney still felt like he could just storm into the house of the person that made her like this and rip their heads off. literary and metaphorically, if he had anything to say about it, because reducing people to tears was kind of his specialty.

Because now Jeannie, his_ sister_, acted like he was the genius older brother he had always secretly dreamed of being. The one he thought he would be until she grew up and was just as smart as he was. It didn't feel good like he had thought it would. It felt like all of his dreams were being slapped back in his face with condescending comments to boot. It felt awful and he didn't like it one bit.

She even called him Rodney now. Of course that was what he wanted to be called, but something about it sounded so strange that he had to keep from flinching every time she called him. Now he kind of missed being called Mer or Meredith which was _absolutely absurd. _He'd used to hate it when she called him that, which just goes to show how _wrong_ the whole thing was.

This wasn't what they were like. This wasn't what they _should_ be like. They argued and snarled and made fun of each offer. They deliberately humiliated each other and brought up painful memories. They told each other secrets nobody else would ever hear and had sleepovers where they silently (or not so silently in Rodney's case) cried into each others shoulders when something they couldn't deal with happened. And they never ever talked about their emotions or their parents, even if Jeannie compared Rodney to their father that one time they got into a particularly vicious fight. They never throw stuff and they never ever bang doors.

In Antarctica, it was different. Jeannie was different, and Rodney didn't know what to do about it.

Rodney always knew what to do, and now that he didn't... now that he didn't, he was _terrified_.

* * *

Rodney

He was loud, and brash, and didn't care about other people's emotions (well, at least that was what most people thought, but Jeannie knew that he just didn't get it. He never understood what other people felt and he didn't make an effort to try after his spectacular failure in teenage hood that they had agreed not to talk about expect for when they were both drunk and crying about all the things that gone wrong in their lives)

He tried to be a good brother and had always done what he thought was best for her. The only problem was that what he thought was best didn't always match what she thought was best, so they argued and didn't talk to each other for long lengths of time and sometimes they even managed to do both at the same time by sending messages to each other by e-mail or by making other people say the things they wouldn't (because of course Rodney wouldn't be the one to speak first and lose, and of course Jeannie couldn't speak first because it was _all Rodney's fault to begin with_. But even then the fight ended and they spoke again. Only to repeat the cycle over and over.)

But through all that, they didn't say it to each other or even show it most of the time, they loved each other. Jeannie knew it because he was her older brother and she was his younger sister and they protected each other, no matter how they chose to define the word.

That was why she trusted him to keep her safe when the man she had thought was the love of her life decided to run off after she had given up all her dreams and even_ Rodney (_It was really Rodney who gave up on _her,_ but she didn't want to think about that now because _he had been right_ _all along_) to be with him and he broke her heart so thoroughly that she didn't think she'd ever be okay again even though she knew she would be. Because Rodney would help her.

Because they would go to Atlantis together and leave all the bad things that had happened to them behind. And okay, maybe bad things would happen there too (there wasn't any doubt in her mind that that was true) but they would be together there, just like they used to be.

And maybe she would try to make their relationship closer than it was before, but that was okay too.

They were siblings after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

The problem with Jeannie being there as well him now was that she was just as smart as he was (though he was never going to tell _anyone_ that, especially not her) and that they were both called Dr. McKay. Thankfully the latter wasn't a big problem because Jeannie so _graciously _allowed their minions to call her Jean, which was her real name and which Rodney had never ever called her and never ever would. Even under pain of torture. He just couldn't do it; it was programmed into him from childhood.

Of course the former meant that they were both technically in charge and _that_ created problems.

Rodney didn't share. He just didn't. That was also programmed into him from childhood and applied doubly for Jeannie because she was his sister. Their parents had had to learn that the hard way when Rodney kept throwing tantrums every time he was asked to share something with his precious little sister. It wasn't a fun lesson for anyone involved.

Everything was made even more difficult with the fact that all of their minions liked Jeannie better for some reason. She liked to say that it was because she was kinder and didn't yell as much, but Rodney knew that it was because half of them had a crush on her and the other half just thought she was pretty. Not that he wasn't a catch himself, but everybody sensible knew that you went for the pretty blond female. He always went for the pretty blond female and he was the smartest guy in the galaxy.

So whenever they made to contradicting orders they always followed hers. It was starting to get on his nerves, especially with Jeannie acting like he won the brother of the year award.

That was actually kind of weird. She still acted like she used to in the labs, but now she backed down when he said something particularity harsh and ate lunch with him and kept close to him. It was like she thought he would kick her out if she didn't do it and it just _grated_. It grated on his nerves and with all the other stuff that was going on Rodney was ready to start pulling his hair out. Not literary of course because lately he'd noticed that he had less of it and he didn't want to make the situation worse, but _still_.

He didn't like it and he planned to do something about it. As soon as he had time for it. Which was probably going to be never if they didn't find someone with a stronger gene than Carson's because the man was just _too cowardly to sit on a damned chair._

"Carson get back here we're not done yet!" He yells after the man, frustrated and irritable because of course Jeannie couldn't be here to convince the _doctor_ to just on the chair for more than five seconds. But he wanted to be here the moment something happened with the chair, so there was no other choice.

"I could sit in that chair all bloody day long, and nothing will happen. It's a waste of time." Rodney wished he would stop saying that all the damn time, it was annoying enough the first time. "Excuse me, Dr. Weir." Carson nodded at the newly arrived doctor.

"He's not even trying!" Rodney argued to Weir, definitely not whining not matter what Jeannie may say.

"He's the one who discovered the gene this technology responds to," Weir said incredulously, looking Rodney straight in the eyes.

"Yeah, well, he said he wished he never had it," Rodney responded bitterly. It just served to show that the ones who _didn't_ want it got it. Rodney would be the happiest man alive to know he could control all that technology. Just think of all the discoveries he could make. But no, the _medical_ doctor had to have it. For god's sake, he wasn't even a real doctor!

"Really?" Weir raised her eyebrows. She must have been as surprised as he was. Who _wouldn't_ want control over cool Ancient technology? Voodoo doctors, that's who.

"I know, can you believe that?" He burst out, because the whole thing was just _ridiculous._ Weir smirked at him then.

"We can always test you a third time, Rodney." Now that was just uncalled for.

"Ha-ha, very funny," He crossed his arms, unamused. She was always doing that, making fun of him and belittling him. That used to be Jeannie's job, not that he had liked it then ether, but then that jerk went and ruined everything.

"We have only found a handful of people who are genetically compatible with the Ancient technology, and despite your heroic efforts to interface ours with theirs, we need every one of them to sit in this chair, including Dr. Beckett." And that was the absolute truth, no matter how much Rodney hated it.

"Are you arguing about the gene again?" Jeannie asked, showing up unexpectedly.

"Jeannie! What are you doing here, you're not supposed to be here!" Rodney sputtered, waving his hands to make her go away.

"Rodney," and there it was again, making him jittery all over. More jittery all over. "You couldn't have thought I'd take that long to check up on the scientists. They're not as helpless as you seem to think." That's what she thinks. "And don't make that face, I know what you're thinking." Rodney glared at her for a moment and then decided to just ignore her.

"What am I supposed to do? He's afraid of the thing." He continued their earlier conversation, willfully not noticing their amused glances to one another.

"This chair controls the most powerful weapons known to humankind. _I'm_ afraid of the thing. But every time someone sits in it, we learn something new about the Ancients who built this outpost. Dr. Beckett should be proud he's genetically advanced." Genetically advanced, yeah right. If being genetically advanced meant you had the gene then Rodney would be first in line to have it.

"It's not more advanced. It's a random characteristic," He snapped, voicing his thoughts for the millionth time, not that anybody listened to him. He would never get how Jeannie wasn't more bummed out about not having the gene.

"This really bothers you, this whole gene thing, huh?" Weir asked shrewdly.

"Oh, clearly I'm overcome by envy." It would be a miracle if she didn't notice the sarcasm. Luckily their lovely conversation was cut short when Daniel, the doctor in the _soft_ sciences, which is even worse than being a voodoo doctor in Rodney's opinion.

"Ah, just the people I needed to see," He says, and then _just walks away._ It was probably an archaeologist thing. They were weird. And not real doctors.

Rodney and Jeannie exchange looks, because at least she agrees with him on this and is probably thinking the same thing herself. Weir just looks up, as if seeking guidance. Rodney sort of feels bad for her, except he really doesn't. That's what she gets for saying all that stuff about Ancient genes being superior.

Then Daniel comes back with a sheepish smile and beckons them to follow him, "Come with me"

This had better be good. He didn't have all day to just sit around and talk. He was the smartest man in the galaxy and he had important discoveries to make.


End file.
